Conventionally, when a user wishes to contact a business, he or she may call a business server telephone number associated with the business. Once the user calls the business server telephone number, a voice communication link may be established with the business server, and the user may begin to exchange information with the business server using the voice communication link.
For example, when a user wishes to reserve a room of a certain hotel, he or she may use a mobile terminal (or other telephone terminal) to dial the telephone number of a hotel server associated with the hotel. After the dialed telephone number is reached, a voice communication link may be established between the user's mobile terminal and the hotel server. FIG. 1 is a flow diagram showing an example conventional process by which the mobile terminal may exchange information with the hotel server using the voice communication link. In example process 100, the user of the mobile terminal attempts to make a room reservation at a hotel associated with the server the user used the mobile terminal to call.
At 102, after a voice communication link is established, the hotel server plays a first audio recording. The first audio recording may include a message such as “For a self-help menu, please press 1. For help from one of our representatives, please press 2.” The purpose of playing the audio recording is to prompt the user to select the service he or she needs via inputting values using a keypad associated with the mobile terminal.
At 104, the user presses a key on the mobile terminal keypad in response to the first audio recording. Assuming that the user wishes to use the self-help menu feature, he presses the number “1” key on the mobile terminal keypad. The mobile terminal sends a voice pulse signal (e.g., which includes dual-tone multi-frequency signals) corresponding to the number “1” to the hotel server.
At 106, after the hotel server analyzes the voice pulse signal to determine that the number “1” key was entered by the user at the mobile terminal, the hotel server determines that the user has selected the self-help menu service. As a result, the hotel server plays a second audio recording that includes the following message: “Please enter your identification number; use the ‘#’ key when you are done.”
At 108, the user enters his or her identification number via the mobile terminal keypad. The mobile terminal sends to the hotel server a voice pulse signal corresponding to each number of the identification number entered by the user.
At 110, the hotel server analyzes each voice pulse signal that it receives to obtain the corresponding number and saves the obtained series of numbers as the user's identification number. For example, the hotel server may save a number corresponding to each voice pulse signal that it receives from the mobile terminal until it receives a voice pulse signal that the hotel server identifies as being associated with the “#” key, at which point the hotel server determines that all the currently saved numbers form the completed identification number entered by the user. Subsequently, the hotel server may play an audio recording that includes the following message: “Your identification number is ABCDE. Please press 1 to confirm; press 0 to re-enter,” where each character of “ABCDE” represents a saved number corresponding to the number entered by the user at the mobile terminal. Put another way, after determining that the voice pulse signal associated with the “#” key has been received, the hotel server replays the stored user-entered identification number in audio form so that the user may confirm whether he had correctly entered the identification number.
At 112, the user presses a key on the mobile terminal keypad associated with confirming the previously entered user identification number. For example, the audio message played back by the hotel server that included the audio form of the identification number previously entered by the user may also include a message that asks the user to either confirm the previously entered user identification number by pressing the “1” key of the mobile terminal keypad or inform the hotel server that the user would like to re-enter the user identification number by pressing the “2” key. In the example, assume that the user wishes to confirm that the previously entered user identification number was correct by pressing the “1” key of the mobile terminal keypad. The mobile terminal sends a voice pulse signal corresponding to the number “1” to the hotel server.
At 114, the hotel server analyzes the voice pulse signal to obtain the number “1” and based on the analysis, determines that the user has confirmed the user identification number he or she had entered. Once the hotel server determines that the user had confirmed the previously entered user identification number, the hotel server may perform subsequent steps involved in allowing the user to reserve a hotel room with the hotel. Example subsequent steps may include the hotel server prompting for the user to enter a credit card number using another audio recording, similar to those described above. For example, the hotel server may wish to acquire the user's credit card number so that the hotel server may charge a deposit for the reserved room.
As can be seen in the process shown in FIG. 1, in a conventional process, when a user exchanges information with a business server using a voice communication link, he or she is limited to sending voice pulse signals representing corresponding numbers to the business server via a mobile terminal keypad. The business server is also limited to prompting the user to proceed in audio form. Such an information exchange mode is relatively restricted and inefficient. In particular, when the user incorrectly enters a series of values into the mobile terminal keypad (e.g., his or her identification number or credit card number), he or she needs to re-enter the entire identification value or (or credit card number) string, which is inefficient.